Feliciano waltzes around the corner, enjoying the rare sunlight shining on his face. God, he's Italian, he isn't designed to live in constant gloom. And it's pitch black outside 75% of the time, he's basically a wilting houseplant.
"A jebem ti mater -"
Feliciano skids to a stop. It shouldn't be weird, seeing her in the village, only a few blocks from where she grew up. But Feliciano stares while she picks up the groceries spread on the ground, cursing at her broken plastic bag. An orange rolls into his right foot.
She follows the fruit with her eyes and stills when it reaches his boots. It's been more than a week since they found the letter and Feliciano had plenty of time to gather his shit. He can do this. They're on his turf now.
He bends and picks it up, tsking while cleaning the fruit with a napkin.
"Those bags are not what they used to be huh?" Feliciano keeps his tone light, forcing his lips to curl in what hopefully looks like amusement. "Bold of you to assume that you could stuff so many groceries in those flimsy things."
She stands, glaring as if Feliciano is holding a time bomb. Ah, the upper hand, how he loved thee. Such a rare thing these days.
"Just get it over and done with."
He raises an eyebrow. What does she think he's up to? And the unfairness washes over him again, because why does she immediately assume that Feliciano wants to screw her over? He hasn't done anything to indicate that, hell, he'd warn her of the villagers and everything. They used to be a team. Why the hell weren't they a team anymore?
He smiles, because even if he has no idea what he's doing, there's no reason to let anyone else know that.
"You should look into home delivery. They do those ready made grocery bags for one person now. You get to do new recipes and stuff, really, give it a try."
She makes the face she always makes when Feliciano acts stupid and he can't help laughing.
"No, no, no, don't knock it until you try it. Jamie loves this one recipe with..." His voice falters. She doesn't know Jamie. How weird is that? She doesn't know anything he's been up to the last decade. As far as she is concerned, he's still the social butterfly who falls in love with every pretty face that comes his way.
"Don't be stupid," she says. "As if anyone would deliver to the middle of a national park."
For a moment it feels like ten years ago, but her jaw is hard and there's a challenge in her gaze.
"Don't underestimate the delivery industry," he says, widening his smile and crinkling his eyes. It's all about activating the apple of the cheeks. People tend to focus on the mouth while faking smiles, but the cheeks is where it's at. She buys it, because of course she does. As if he could be happy about anything these days.
"Well in that case, I better get going and look it up at home." She gathers the last of her stuff, glancing at the things closest to Feliciano and deciding that they aren't worth the trouble.
"Your connection must be a thousand times better here."
She steadies her bike and pulls a new plastic bag from nowhere, stuffing it without looking at him.
No.
They're on his turf now and he won't be ignored anymore.
Feliciano prances towards her. She freezes, but she can't move without the bike falling over. He hums, plopping the orange into a bag.
"Canned spaghetti?" He wrinkles his nose. "You disappoint me."
"What? I don't have any fucking-"
YOU ARE READING
Unbreakable smile
General Fiction"You can't even say her name out loud. You know what that reminds me of? Freaking Voldemort." Feliciano thinks of what people said after That Night. What they still are saying. He stands. Jamie looks like he wants to take the words back. "Love-" "...
